Badminton Star Mahnoor Shahzad

Mahnoor Shahzad is a Pakistani badminton player. She belongs to Karachi. She started playing badminton at 12 she used to play in the streets. Her father supports him to play badminton then at 13 years she becomes the national U19 championship in 2009. Since then her parents knew she has talent and can represent Pakistan in international level. Then she started training more and at 16, she became Pakistan’s number one player. At 19 years, she became the national women champion. For the fifth time, she has won the title of National Badminton Champion that was held at Abdul Rehman Sports. She has participated in many national and international levels. She became the first Pakistani female player to reach the top 200 in the world ranking.

Joining IBA

She is not only the topped badminton but also achieved success at IBA. When she got admission to IBA in 2014, she had natural talent and good stamina, so her father said to her that sports are better for her. He also asked not to go to IBA, but she rejected and said that it will be an easy way but she wanted a challenging part and she continued IBA. She does training for 6 hours every day, 3 hours in the morning and 4 hours in the evening. Since she started playing badminton, she tried to make shots accurate. Now she has worked more on skills so her shots are more accurate and consistent and positive. She is still working to improve her skills for the international event. Right now for Pakistan, she is good, but she wants to play on the international level. She is working on the speed and also makes the shot accurate.

In an interview, she advised that when you start something you have to face the hurdles but it doesn’t mean that you should give up, I also faced many hurdles many people tried to stop playing me but I am not a quit and I continued to chase my dreams. She said that the Federation doesn’t have that many funds that they can send them on International Tour. Now the Federation is not even getting the grant that they used to form the government. The SAF Game camp that was to be held is also not happening as there are no funds. This is the biggest loss as the Federation has no funds and cannot send them to the international event. She has participated in 10 to 15 tournaments if she wants to qualify for the Olympics and bring crime to the top 70.

Her Determination

Pakistan doesn’t have many academies for the players. People used to say that the Indian team is performing well and our Pakistani team is not performing well. The main reason for that is India has many Badminton Academies that players stay at those Academies since the beginning and don’t even go to school. Their tutors come there to teach them they do training all day and also live there. While here they don’t have any Academy system, there are only two or three public facilities like the National coaching center in Karachi other a private club. After the success of PSL, many other sports are launching leagues.

The Need of Foreign Coaches

There was one league held in Islamabad by Islamabad Badminton Federation. That took initiative to hold the league privately and paid the players. It was a good initiative but as there were only Pakistani players it can be improved by inviting foreign players next time. So they have time to play with them. She believes that more practice & international coaches can help to improve the skills. Camps should behold call foreign coaches. The Badminton secretary wanted to invite a coach from Indonesia, but that was not possible, as the Federation did not have many funds to invite them here to Pakistan. If a foreign coach would not come our skills won’t improve, so they should invest the maximum in sports she is currently at 209 ranks.

Now recently she is going to represent Pakistan in Tokyo Olympics, in BWF. Being the FIRST ever Pakistani badminton player to qualify for the Olympics is a proud moment not only for her and her family but also for the whole nation. She is our pride, wishing she get the rank in 1st 70 top players in the world.